The Fault in Our Stars

You must have heard about this book! I resisted reading it based on the maudlin reports of cancer, sadness and death. My mum the librarian (as you all now know) told me that all her year 9-12 students read it, cried in the library, talked about it day after day and then all went to see it in the cinema and did the same all over again.

I don’t like to read things that I know are going to make me sad. I don’t watch horror films that are going to make me frightened. However, Fault in Our Stars kept coming up on my Amazon recommended list after my little run of teen fiction and so I bit the bullet, bought it and I was not disappointed.

The main character is Hazel; a teenager with slow-growing lung cancer who is experiencing normal teen things alongside an oxygen tank and hospital appointments. She is part of a teenagers cancer support group, which she hates going to but at one session she is introduced to a rather handsome and seemingly healthy Augustus Waters.

Here ensues a teenage love story with an exciting trip due to their shared curiosity of a novelist. There are the modern day teen angst with many texts and late night phone calls, antisocial behaviour with parents and the basement hangouts with computer games, but this makes it all very relatable and draws you in further.

No guesses or spoilers to learn that things aren’t all peachy and it does have a very sad element to it. I don’t cry at books but this one I had to stop reading in order for the tears to stay well within their ducts. It’s not an easy one to read all the way through!

This book is really good and I would recommend all ages read it - 3/5. I subsequently watched the film on a day when I was feeling very sorry for myself and wanted a good cry. It wasn’t the tearjerker that I was hoping for but it is very endearing and a lovely watch.